Top tax official not satisfied with tax amnesty results

Taxation director general Ken Dwijugeasteadi has said he is not satisfied with the results of the first round of the tax amnesty program even though it has collected Rp 97.2 trillion (US$7.49 billion) in redemption or 58.99 percent of a Rp165 trillion target goal.

Ken explained only 2.09 percent of 20.1 million tax payers participated in the first round of the tax pardon program, which ended on Sept. 30.

He said 20 million tax payers would hopefully participate in the next two periods of the tax amnesty program, which the government expects could spur economic growth.

“With facts and data showing that we were able to collect Rp 97 trillion within the first three months, an achievement regarded as the most successful tax amnesty program in the world, I am still not satisfied. It should be ten times higher than Rp 97 trillion, then I would be satisfied,” Ken told journalists in Jakarta recently.

He said the majority of declared assets were liquid assets, amounting to Rp 1.3 quadrillion or 37 percent of total assets. It was comprised of Rp 999 trillion worth of declared assets from domestic, Rp 96.74 trillion in repatriated assets and Rp 280 trillion worth of declared assets from overseas.

He further said that in the second period of its implementation, aside from chasing big fish who had not yet participated in the tax amnesty program, the Tax Office would reach out to tax payers from small medium enterprises (SMEs), currently only about 54,000 of a total of 367,464 SME tax payers had participated in the program. (ebf)